Jameel M. Al-Khayri

Date Palm Genetic Resources and Utilization

Successful future development of date palm depends largely on evaluating, utilizing, and conserving genetic resources; assessing the value of present and potential cultivars; promoting the best cultivation, processing, and marketing practices; and broadening the number of fruit and tree products. The date palm was domesticated at the dawn of agriculture, new technologies were adopted for its cultivation, the palm was dispersed widely by humans and it has become a major world tree crop with the introduction of modern plantations. France, the USA, and international organizations have contributed to date palm development and more recently domestic programs in the larger producing countries. Creating a new international date palm organization to bring together research and development efforts and to serve as a resource center would be benefi cial. Date palm cultivation has a long history across North Africa; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia are major world fruit producers. Traditional date cultivation in oases is common, with recent and ongoing expansion of organized plantations. North Africa has potential for increased production given its proximity to existing European markets, but serious pest and disease problems must be overcome. Domestic and international research and development support and familiarity with the crop are assets. In the Sahel and Southern Africa, dates are minor crops but with potential for development to meet domestic demand. Advantages include favorable climatic and soil conditions and lesser pest and disease problems. Similar advantages exist in the Americas. Because they are not included in country chapters, summary accounts of date cultivation in Benin, Kenya, Mexico, and Namibia are provided. D. V. Johnson (*) Consultant , Cincinnati , OH , USA e-mail: djohn37@aol.com J. M. Al-Khayri Department of Agricultural Biotechnology , King Faisal University , Al-Hassa 31982 , Saudi Arabia e-mail: jkhayri@kfu.edu.sa S. M. Jain Department of Agricultural Sciences , University of Helsinki , PL-27 , Helsinki 00014 , Finland e-mail: mohan.jain@helsinki.fi

Date palm micropropagation: Advances and applications

ABSTRACT Date palm ( Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a fruit tree resilient to adverse climatic conditions predominating in hot arid regions of the Middle East and North Africa. The date fruit contains numerous chemical components that possess high nutritional and medicinal values. Traditional propagation by offshoots is inefficient to satisfy current demands for date palm trees. Alternatively, micropropagation provides an efficient means for large-scale propagation of date palm cultivars. Both somatic embryogenesis and organogenesis, either directly or indirectly though the callus phase, have been demonstrated in date palm in vitro regeneration. Culture initiation commonly utilizes shoot-tip explants isolated from young offshoots. Recently, the immature inflorescences of adult trees were utilized as an alternative nondestructive source of explants. In addition to the nature of the explant used, successful plant regeneration depends on the cultivar, composition of the culture medium and physical status. Challenges of date palm micropropagation include long in vitro cycle, latent contamination, browning, somaclonal variation as well as ex vitro acclimatization and transplanting. A remarkable amount of research investigating these factors has led to optimized protocols for the micropropagation of numerous commercially important cultivars. This has encouraged the development of several international commercial tissue culture laboratories. Molecular characterization provides an assurance of genetic conformity of regenerated plantlets, a key feature for commercial production. This article describes date palm micropropagation protocols and also discusses recent achievements with respect to somaclonal variation, molecular markers, cryopreservation and future prospects.

Advances in plant breeding strategies : agronomic, abiotic and biotic stress traits

World population is expected to increase from the current 6.7 billion to more than 10 billion people by the year 2050. This 45 % increase in the current world population will create demand for increased food and other raw materials. At present the supply of fossil fuel, fertilizers, water and chemicals such as insecticides, pesticides and fungicides are at their peak; but this situation will not remain linear in the future. Modern agriculture is essentially based on varieties bred for high performance under high-input systems which generally do not perform well under low-input conditions. Excessive uses of these inputs are posing serious threats to ecology, environment, soil health and ground water. Furthermore, the amount of arable land for crop cultivation is limited and decreasing due to urbanization, salinization, desertifi cation and environmental degradation. With respect to global warming, yields of important food, feed and fi ber crops will decline. In addition to these environmental factors, abiotic and biotic stresses also cause losses to crop production. Thus, the challenge before agriculture scientists is to improve the genetic architecture of agricultural crops to perform well against threats and stresses; this will require diverse approaches to enhance the sustainability of agriculture farms. This proposed shift in plant breeding goals, from high energy input and high performance of agriculture, entails an improved rationalization between yield and energy coupled with high quality food as global resources. Sustainable crop production is a way of growing food in an ecologically and ethically responsible manner that does not harm the environment and sustains communities.

Advances in Plant Breeding Strategies: Breeding, Biotechnology and Molecular Tools

The domestication of plants, as a bio-cultural process, is a continuous phenomenon intrinsically associated with the use of plants. Traditional and scientifi c knowledge constitute the basis of the various uses of plants from in situ harvesting to complete domestication of crops. One of the most important challenges of our time is to achieve the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources of landraces, species in the process of domestication and species used in situ. The in situ conservation of agricultural biodiversity is a basic element for the development of more sustainable agroecosystems, the adaptation to climate change, the conservation of ecosystem services and to ensure local food security—a conception that is strongly linked to the local development and the protection of cultural and biological diversity. Through case studies from the Pampa Biome we will discuss the valorization of plant genetic resources through new domestication, the promotion of the use of scientifi cally developed best management practices for in situ conservation, the widening of the germplasm base for breeding programs, plant breeding for stress tolerance, the development of participatory plant breeding programs and the development of high quality products.

Introduction: Date Production Status and Prospects in Asia and Europe

Successful future development of date palm depends largely on evaluating, utilizing, and conserving genetic resources; assessing the value of present and potential cultivars; promoting the best cultivation, processing, and marketing practices; and broadening the number of fruit and tree products. The date palm was domesticated at the dawn of agriculture, new technologies were adopted for its cultivation, the palm was dispersed widely by humans and it has become a major world tree crop with the introduction of modern plantations. France, the USA, and international organizations have contributed to date palm development and more recently domestic programs in the larger producing countries. Creating a new international date palm organization to bring together research and development efforts and to serve as a resource center would be beneficial. Date cultivation originated in Iraq and that country has always been a major producer; Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates also are all primary world producers. These countries present a mixed pattern of old and new date cultivation which receive federal government support for research and development. In recent decades, cultivation in the Arabian Peninsula has expanded significantly with new plantations using tissue-cultured plants. Date production in Pakistan and India comes mostly from seedling date palms under traditional cultivation. Modern date cultivation is being established to meet the large domestic demand. Israel’s date production is unique coming entirely from modern plantations. Spain’s very small date production from seedling dates is a novelty and likely to remain so. Because they are not included in country chapters, summary accounts of date cultivation in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates are included.

Introduction: Date Production Status and Prospects in Africa and the Americas

Successful future development of date palm depends largely on evaluating, utilizing, and conserving genetic resources; assessing the value of present and potential cultivars; promoting the best cultivation, processing, and marketing practices; and broadening the number of fruit and tree products. The date palm was domesticated at the dawn of agriculture, new technologies were adopted for its cultivation, the palm was dispersed widely by humans and it has become a major world tree crop with the introduction of modern plantations. France, the USA, and international organizations have contributed to date palm development and more recently domestic programs in the larger producing countries. Creating a new international date palm organization to bring together research and development efforts and to serve as a resource center would be beneficial. Date palm cultivation has a long history across North Africa; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia are major world fruit producers. Traditional date cultivation in oases is common, with recent and ongoing expansion of organized plantations. North Africa has potential for increased production given its proximity to existing European markets, but serious pest and disease problems must be overcome. Domestic and international research and development support and familiarity with the crop are assets. In the Sahel and Southern Africa, dates are minor crops but with potential for development to meet domestic demand. Advantages include favorable climatic and soil conditions and lesser pest and disease problems. Similar advantages exist in the Americas. Because they are not included in country chapters, summary accounts of date cultivation in Benin, Kenya, Mexico, and Namibia are provided.